Posted by vrcvanderbilt on Monday, April 18, 2016 in Events, HART, Student/Alumni, VRC.

HART alumna Stephanie Storey graduated cum laude from Vanderbilt in 1997 with a fine arts major (now history of art) and a passionate interest in Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Italian Renaissance.  Such an obsession, she claims, ultimately culminated in her debut art historical novel, Oil and Marble, recently published by Arcade/Skyhorse.

Storey will talk to HART and creative writing students about her career trajectory since graduation in an informal discussion on Tuesday, April 19, at noon in the atrium annex (second-floor lobby) of Cohen Memorial Hall.  A light lunch will be provided.

“Over the past 20 years I’ve read every book I could find, crawled into the back of dark library stacks to track down obscure documents, studied art and Italian at the University of Pisa [semester abroad through Vanderbilt], driven up and down the Italian peninsula, and been on a pilgrimage to see every work on public display by Michelangelo, ” said Storey.

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti both lived and worked in Florence from 1501-1505.   Storey’s richly imagined tale of the real-life rivalry that drove these artists to create their iconic masterpieces is set against a backdrop of the violent, deceitful yet inspired world of the Italian Renaissance.

A native of Arkansas, Storey attended a PhD program in Art History before leaving to get her MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College.  Now a Los Angeles-based writer, Storey has spent the past 15 years producing television for such shows as Tavis Smiley on PBS, The Writers’ Room with Jim Rash on Sundance, Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil for Comedy Central, and The Arsenio Hall Show for CBS.